Cleaning the House

I hate cleaning. I really hate it. I hate clutter more. I abhor it. I can honestly say that no one will EVER accuse me of being a hoarder. I chunk things in the garbage and in bags to donate at high speed. Over the last 2 weeks I have taught the kids the true joy of decluttering. There WAS a a small amount of bribery involved and it was built upon the previous lesson of "if you get rid of stuff, there will be rewards" and "if you donate stuff, it goes to people who have none". And they are FINALLY old enough to get these 2 lessons. Between their 2 rooms and just their toy bins in the front part of the house 15 bags of misc. "stuff" including trash, broken toys, toys for giving to younger friends, and donations were removed from the house. Not like little sacks, but BIG giant trash bags full o stuff.

This makes me happy for 2 reasons. 1. T1's meds are working well. Which is the best reason EVER. She's able to let things go and not obsess about them. She was able to sort her favorite items and figure out which were her favorite ones and which one she can let go. She is giving her others to her friend that is younger. THIS has been a MASSIVE past issue and is indicative of her progress. A HUGE, HUGE sign that she is doing better than ever on her current treatment. Her OCD is being well managed - not gone. It will never be "gone", but she is able to manage it, her feelings, and let things go.

 2. Our house is no longer a pack rats nest of useless crap.  15 GIANT TRASH BAGS of junk. Just THEIR junk. *Shudder*.. Now they can actually FIND the things they want to play with, get to their stuff now, and they are LOVING that. 

In return for giving up such an enormous amount of stuff, they each got to pick out a new toy. I figured that was rather sporting. They spend HOURS and hours and hours. Literally. Over the course of the cleaning event, they (and I because really they are 5 and 6 they aren't going to stay on task for longer than 10 minutes at a time) spent probably 6 or 7 hours total sorting and cleaning.  They don't earn an allowance yet (we have an odd marble system that we use) so they each got to pick out a new toy.  T1 got a new "Big" Lalalaoopsy and T2 got the Green Lantern Lair by Imaginex.  They are oddly thrilled to trade the 15 bags for their 1 toy each and so am I.